AIR FORCE ACTIVITY

Taranaki Daily News, 19 September 1940, Page 8

AIR FORCE ACTIVITY

DELIGATE ORGANISATION OUTLINE BY OFFICER

Wellington, Sept. 17. The vital importance of ground organisation to the Air Force was discussed by the Air Force Member for Supply at Air Headquarters, Wellington, Group Captain A. Nevill, in an address. "Modern service aircraft represent the high-water mark of man's inventive genius," Group Captain Nevill said. "The operation of these machines in the air calls for a high degree of skill and knowledge in pilotage, gunnery, wireless and navigation. This necessitates an elaborate organisation for the training of air crews. 1 "In the same way the maintenance of these aircraft and their associated equipment, such as armament, wireless, aero engines, also involves technical organisation. It will be appreciated, therefore, that the numbers of Air Force personnel employed on ground duties greatly exceed those who fly as pilots, gunners and observers. In fact, the proportion is not less than 10 to one. Our attention is very naturally directed to the exploits of our airmen employed in active operations and consequently we sometimes fail to appreciate the vital importance of this ground organisation to the Air Force. "This organisation goes far beyond the enlisted Air Force personnel employed at stations. It embraces the works services, meteorological and aerodrome services, and a special educational branch, all of which are intimately concerned with the Air Force programme. It includes private industry which is adapting itself wherever possible to the production of miscellaneous aeronautical equipment. However much we may regrejfc the necessity for this effort, it is obvious that the enhanced technical education developed as a result will have a very beneficial effect in years to come. Ten Stations in Dominion. "There are 10 Air Force stations in New Zealand engaged in the Empire air training programme. Any of the five large stations now operating in the Dominion presents the appearance of a small town with a population of nearly 1000, and comprises up to 100 miscellaneous buildings, sited on the edge of a huge field. The buildings accommodate the personnel, aircraft, and repair services. The personnel accommodation includes hutments divided into dormitories and cubicles, messes well equipped with modern kitchens, institutes, and gymnasiums, drying rooms, laundries. The technical accommodation includes repair shops and hangars. The shops occupy more space than any comparable establishment in the city. "The hangars cover about three acres of floor space. and are fronted by large concrete or bituminous aprons of similar area opening on to an aerodrome of some 400 acres with rumvays more than a mile long. The aerodrome to the uninitiated is just an amazingly level expanse of grass, but it is not as nature left it. At most of these stations at least half a million cubic yards of earth have been moved. Special turf has been established to stand up to the constant traffic of: heavy aircraft, and underneath that surface are some 20 to 30 miles of pipe drains, and hundreds of miles of mole drains. It can readily be understood that a station of this size cannot be developed in a few months. Eighteen months to two vears is a minimum period.

"It may be wondered how the Dominion has managed to make this progress in just over 12 months of war. The explanation lies partly in the policy of aerodrome construction pursued during the three years before the war; and partly to the sound lines of the air force expansion programme approved early in 1937. During that period a number of commercial aerodromes were rapidly developed with modern machine equipment by the Public Works Department. As a result suitable aerodromes existed on the outbreak of war to meet the air force mobilisation programme. The air force expansion scheme commenced in 1937 with the construction of two large stations which were intended for the new Wellington bomber aircraft. These aerodromes were nearing completion on the outbreak of war and have now become large training schools. "We are proud of the part New Zealanders are playing overseas in the epic air battles now proceeding. They are the product of our training schools in the Dominion. Let us give credit to all those

men, particularly in the Public Works Department, whose untiring efforts over the past three years have made such an expansion possible. Let us also not fail to remember the ground staffs of the air force ,on whose efflciency and "devotion to duty the final results depend."